Four months after “bottoming”— assuming the passive role during anal sex—for the first and only time for his Center City “fuck buddy” one evening two years ago, R. Vincent Johns developed a painful testicular infection. It prompted him to undergo a series of STD screenings including an HIV test.

The openly gay, Abington-born South Philly resident was accustomed to being tested for HIV because he bed-hopped some. But he always practiced safe sex with everyone except his fuck buddy, a healthy-looking pre-med student Johns fancied too smart to have HIV.

But as Johns showered on the morning of March 30, 2008, in preparation for his trip to the Mazzoni Center clinic at 12th and Chestnut, a premonition chilled his slender bones.

“I didn’t think the infection had anything to do with HIV,” he says. “I was thinking I’d get tested ... just to rule it out. But I suddenly had this thought, ‘Today’s the day I’m gonna test positive.’”

Twenty months later, Johns, a catering waiter who graduated last June from the Art Institute of Philadelphia with a degree in industrial design, has AIDS. You wouldn’t know he had the virus if you passed him in the supermarket: His skin’s unblemished, his gait is steady and he doesn’t cough much, even though he sometimes chain-smokes.

In fact, dressed in his trademark shades, khaki jacket and trousers and gray leather sneakers, he looks much like any other street-chic under-30.

Still, more than a few voices in the AIDS services community caution that in the decade-plus since effective antiretroviral meds have transformed HIV infection from a disfiguring, uncompromising death sentence into a chronic but manageable infection, too many people have lost their fear of getting the virus.

“I’ve absolutely had people tell me they let their guards down, maybe took chances because AIDS is now a treatable disease,” says Kevin Burns, executive director of 12th and Arch-based ActionAIDS, the largest AIDS service organization in Pennsylvania. “Some people kind of have the attitude that, you know, ‘If I get it, I’ll just have to take a pill.’”

Ron Powers, director of programs for the Mazzoni Center, which characterizes itself as the city’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) health center, adds, “I don’t think most people actually say it that clearly, but it’s more in terms of they didn’t think of it as such a big deal anymore. I think there’s some complacency in terms of people looking at it like all you need to do is take a couple of pills a day and you’ll be fine.”

The problem with that outlook—even as quarter-century-old images of deathly sick gay men covered in purplish Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) lesions tottering into big-city emergency rooms fade—is that HIV/AIDS is still an epidemic to be feared.

Most people develop a brief flulike illness, called acute retroviral syndrome, shortly after the virus invades them but then remain apparently healthy for five years or more. But Johns’ early HIV trip has been atypically difficult. Only two years after becoming infected, he undergoes chemo treatments for the KS flare-ups that swell his lymph nodes and cause the sporadic appearance of what he describes as “a little red guy” in his left eye. He suffers from headaches and fatigue. Every night he takes Atripla, a three-med cocktail tablet that often wipes him out for part of the next day.

Johns’ lymph nodes became alarmingly swollen a year after he became infected. It was his first bout with KS, although he didn’t know it then.

“You have lymph nodes throughout your body, and they run down your neck,” he says. “And so when it first started happening I literally looked like I was becoming a dinosaur or something because I had like bump after bump after bump all over my body. It was freaky as fuck.”

Dr. Robert Winn, who’s Johns’ doctor as well as the Mazzoni Center’s medical director, isn’t sure why his patient has encountered serious complications so early.

“He’d only recently been infected, so it was really surprising that he had KS,” says Winn. “It’s really not clear why he’s having a tougher time than most. He’s doing OK now because he’s on meds, and he’s going to be fine, but most people who are newly diagnosed don’t have to deal with this.”

It’s a lot to handle, even for an irrepressible 28-year-old who takes great pride in his resiliency, laughs easily, smokes weed daily, apologizes for talking too much and almost always sports an oversized birdie charm around his neck.

COMMENTS

Comments 1 - 8 of 8

1. drnusa said... on Dec 9, 2009 at 09:53AM

“Good timely article! I learned alot from it and it was well written I hope everyone reads it . I had some absolutely horrible and unforgettable experiences with AIDS many years ago as a medical intern. We gotta stop the spread of this virus!!!!”

2. Anonymous said... on Dec 9, 2009 at 11:41AM

“I am R. Vincent Johns, i just want to say thanks for doing this. People need to know we the infected look just like everyone else these days and please never let your guard down.”

3. Mom said... on Dec 9, 2009 at 03:20PM

“Robert you have always been a strong person you are a fighter much like your mother, you have always found a way to come out ok. Just know this I have always supported you even when you did'nt think I would or could. I may yell at frist but thats me. But I always come around. I have loved you from the second you were put in my arms March 26 1981@1104 pm. I will always be here for you.I love you my SON, Love Mama”

4. Christina said... on Dec 9, 2009 at 08:19PM

“Vincent, I think its great that your sharing your story.I remember the day you told me that you found out. It was right after i suggested that maybe you get tested for it because i thought that the scabs you had might have been a symptom of aids. And i remember you pulling me off to the side and you told me and up until that point i have never met anyone with aids and i felt really horrible because your such a great person and i never thought that it could happen to a friend of mine. But R.Vincent Johns, you will rise above it all... i know your strong and an extremely unique and strong willed individual. -nok-”

5. brother said... on Dec 9, 2009 at 08:56PM

“robert your one of if not the strongest person i know. i love and miss you. i know you will make it through all the hard times. you have done it time and time again. love ya big bro”

6. Anonymous said... on Dec 10, 2009 at 08:25AM

“Vinny Vin, I'm proud of you, there is nothing that comes at you in life that you don't overcome. I'm glad you're talking about this and making people aware. I hope people benefit from this article, you are a constant source of inspiration to me. <3 Vanny Van”

7. Friend of Team Gay said... on Dec 10, 2009 at 12:41PM

“Keep smiling, gorgeous!”

8. Cyd said... on Dec 10, 2009 at 01:34PM

“Thank you to everyone that shared their stories. It is important that people know more so they can do more to protect themselves and others.”

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